This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

HAM LOG (1951) was a typical Zia Sarhadi film highlighting the social issues in keeping with the socialistic ideology followed by Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). The film was produced under the banner of Ranjit Movietone. In this film, social issues were raised that arose out of the difficulties faced by a poor family of Lalaji Harcharandas (Kanhaiyalal) and his wife (Durga Khote), unemployed son Raj (Balraj Sahani), a sickly daughter Paro (Nutan) and a school going son (Master Ratan). The problem is further accentuated by the arrest of Lalaji for allegedly stealing money from his employer for which he is sent to prison.
Ironies of fate are projected in this film to give a melancholic turn to the story. Paro loves Anand (Sajjan) who is employed as a music composer in Prabhat Theatre owned by Acharya (G M Durrani) but cannot marry him because of her sickness. Shefali (Shayma), a poor girl loves Raj but circumstances make him to spurn her overtures as he has no money to even take care of himself. The other irony is that Raj takes the money brought by Lalaji from his employer and gives it to Kundan (Anwar Hussain) who loses the money in gambling. For the money lost, Lalaji is arrested and sent to prison. Later on Kundan repents for his wrong doings and commits suicides for which Raj is arrested for his murder. Ultimately, Raj also dies in the court room during his trial. The film ends with a optimistic and inspirational song gaaye chala jaa ik din tera bhi zamaana aayega.

The theme is melodramatic and but not to the extent of making it a tear jerking one. There are some lighter moments in the film mostly coming out of some hard hitting and sarcastic dialogues. For instance, there is a dual between Mamaji (Manmohan Krishan) and the Prabhat Theatre owner Acharya (G M Durrani). The dialogues between Acharya and Anand are sarcastic. Acharya says that the day the audience becomes intelligent, he may have to close down his theatre. He further says that his theatre is not a place for propagating social messages but for making money. For this purpose, he (Anand) should bring newer girls rather than idealistic stories for the theatre. I will not be surprised if these sarcastic dialogues were directed in a subtle way towards Chandulal Shah of Ranjit Movietones. The screen play is smooth, dialogues are catchy and acting by all the main actors is superb including G M Durrani in the role of the owner of Prabhat Theatre. The film seems to have done relatively better performance at the box office as compared with other films directed by Zia Sarhadi such as ‘Railway Platform’ (1953), and ‘Aawaz’ (1956).

Another highlight of the film is the superb song composition by music director Roshan. There were eight songs in the film of which seven songs have already been covered in the blog. The eighth and the last song from this film for discussion is ‘bogi bogi bogi yo yo yo yo’ sung by G M Durrani and Shamshad Begum. The song was written by Vishwamitra Adil. It is a fun song making for a welcomed diversion from the melancholic scenes in the film. The background to the song is that with a lot of pressure from Paro, Mamaji (Manmohan Krishan) takes a drama story written by her to be given to Acharya (G M Durrani), the theatre owner to consider for staging a drama based on her story. As he leaves to visit the theatre, camera pans on a stage show of this song with dances of Cuckoo and other dancers.

In my childhood, I was not aware of any other details of this song except the first line of this song in my childhood, courtesy my maternal uncle. I had heard him saying in my house that there was a girl named Bhugi ( probably a short form of her real name) in his office. As soon as she used to enter the office, her colleagues would start singing ‘bhugi bhugi bhugi yo yo yo yo’. It went on for 2-3 days but instead of getting annoyed, she used to enjoy the song. So the whole purpose of teasing her with this song was defeated. My uncle is now 80+ and stays in his native place. A few years back, he came to Mumbai for attending a marriage. I met him there and reminded him about this song. He had a hearty laugh after which he repeated the story discussed above under the impression that I was not aware of this background. I had an inkling that my uncle may also been a participant in this teasing :). By the way, ‘yo’ in Konkani language means ‘come here’.

This song could well be the first rap song of Hindi films with rock & roll style dance. After hearing this song in the voice of G M Durrani, I am not surprised that he was Mohammed Rafi’s idol. Shamshad Begum had sung many fun songs but I was pleasantly surprised to know that she could sing rap song with ease.

With this song, all the songs from ‘Ham Log’ (1951) have been covered in the blog.

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10 Responses to "Bogi bogi bogi"

oh boy! My head is spinning just from reading the second paragraph! I dont know how u watched the entire movie! just story has given me a headache :) I guess like u mentioned, the comedy in between must have kept some balance, still…

Thank you Arunji for the link. Reading the history of this movie now puts clear light on everything that went behind during the making of this film and the mindset of people. I’m never touching this movie ever!

Dear Arun,
I refreshed myself by reading your as well as other comments you referred to above.
Oh! I completely forgot that after this film, Zia Sarhadi was ‘persona non grata’ in Ranjit Studios.
I have mentioned in my write-up some dialogues in the film between G M Durrani as Theatre owner and Sajjan as his music composer. I guess, Zia Sarhadi may have repeated those dialogues based on his experience with Chandulal Shah when he took his story of ‘Ham Log’ to him :).

Yippeeee!! Hum Log (1951) joins the ranks of movies where all songs from the movie have been discussed on this blog. Every song from this movie seems to be a gem in its own right. Thank you Sadanand Ji and Atul Ji.